Joerg Baumgartner wrote:
>This comes from my current discussions about Tarsh and Esrolia/Holy =
Country
>with the Seattle gang, and a long chat I had with Nick and Tom Zunder =
in
>Berlin last year.
>Nick proposed that the Esrolite earth queens placed all the unpleasant
>aspects of the earth outside of their immediate realm: Babeester Gor at =
Axe
>Hall, on the Shadow Plateau, Maran Gor in the Shaker's Temple in Tarsh, =
and
>Ty Kora Tek below the Necropolis (if I recall this correctly - that was
>after three days with way too little sleep).
Actually Joerg, the Nick's insightful proposal was: "The Shaker's Temple was an Esrolian building: perhaps propitiating the = goddess of the barren earth and earthquake in some useless land where = her attention will do no harm, rather than doing so in the heart of = fertile Esrolia where we *don't* want her to be looking, thanks very = much... (The Axe Hall on Shadow Plateau and the Haunted Fields of the = Wenelians could be Babs' and TKT's equivalents?)"
A proposal that I, fro one, endorse.
Then Joerg says:
>Jeff Richard poses that all the earth cults of post-Dragonkill Dragon =
Pass
>rely heavily on the Esrolite inner cult (and structure), which deviated =
from
>the ordinary Orlanthi course still followed by most of the Esrolites =
likely
>to the end of the 1st Age. Jeff, would you present your ideas here, =
please?
Sure enough. Arranged in no particular order (since the paragraphs have = been culled from our discussion) and with extremely poor editing are the = following ideas:
In Broken Council, the Esrolians are described as:
"The people of Esrolia still worship Orlanth and Esrola, and have = learned many troll ways as well. Women rule the Esrolian tribes, and = they follow Argan Argar in the ways of trade and communication."
Interestingly, the Guidebook adds:
"When King Heort brought the secret of the Star Heart back to his = people, he reformed the Kodivari and, they became the Esrolvuli. They = accepted the laws of Heort, but not his rulership, for their loyalty to = the Only Old One was greater."
2) This strongly indicates to me that the Esrolians were at least during = fourth century, within the basic parameters of Heort's Orlanth cult = ("they accepted the laws of Heort"), but the strong Darkness influence = and the Widows' Cult made them definitely at the margins.
The Darkness influence (and the protection of the Only Old One) had a = significant impact on the development of Esrolian society. For one = matter, Esrolia never had to develop a significant warrior class in = order to defend itself, instead it could largely rely on the protection = of the OOO and later the Pharoah. The overwhelming majority of Esrolian = men (and maybe women?) fall into the "trollkin class". They are not = warriors, at best they form as half-baked militia.=20
Ruling over the overwhelming majority of Esrolites are nearly a dozen = important Queens with scores of lesser queens, with the Important Queens = trying to stay that way and the many of the lesser queens trying to get = there. With the advent of the Pharoah, open violence is very rare, but = the intrigue would impress a member of the Imperial household. When the = Pharoah disappears, the intrigue and divisions within the Esrolian = queens opens the door for Fazzur's invasion.
This gets me to what IMO is a really important issue of Esrolia - what = is the basic unit of agrarian organization for the Esrolians? For the = Heortlings (in the bigger sense of the word than just Heortland/Quivini) = the basic unit is the "free stead within a clan super-structure". I = personally suspect that the Esrola cult "owns" the land and that the = Esrolites view themselves as "tenant-farmers" of Esrola's land. The =
entire village works the "Queen's" land and the Esrola cult handles the = food distribution (through feasts, seasonal ceremonies where the family = heads are given X amount of Esrola's bounty, etc.). The surplus grain, =of course, belongs to the queen and her household/cult and whatever left = after supporting that is probably sold to Nochet or elsewhere.
From a Heortling POV, this would explain the Esrolite "slave gang" = stories. The Esrolites have no "rights to their land" [something all of = my players in ToDP would understand] and thus are "unfree", cottars at = best, maybe even thralls.=20
3) Some time between the fourth and the ninth centuries I believe that = there developed an Esrolian mystery cult that further developed the = "Grandmothers Cult" and spoke of the primacy of the earth goddess in a = "universal" way (claiming all "earth" cults were but shadows of this = mystery cult). This Esrolian mystery cult may be quite similar to the = Cybele/ Adonis mystery cult of the Classical Near East or the Eleusian = mysteries of Attica and could provide an interesting Kethaelan = counter-balance to the Pelorian mysteries.=20
This mystery cult is not IMO a religion for the Esrolvuli clans but a = cult probably limited to priestesses, acolytes and high initiates in = cults that the the MC considers to be "earth" cults. IOW, this is an = elitist cult revealing its secrets to a limited few (resembling in some = ways the only other written mystery cults in GoG - the Path of Immanent = Mastery, and the Red Goddess). It should be considered a civilized = religion for the Queens and leaders of Esrolia.
I acknowledge that I lack any textual support for this wild hypothesis = besides the circumstantial evidence of an "earth cult" of Esrolia, = besides a little quote in Wyrm's Footprints: "In the Second Age they = were enlightened by the God Learners and became heir to their = systemisation of deities and recognition of patterns. This earth system = has spread all over the world, though in some places certain parts are = stressed more than others." and a little blurb in KoS pg. 227. In a = nutshell, I am claiming that the Goddesses of the Earth write-up in = Wyrm's Footprints is a bastardized summary of the Esrolian mystery cult = - - which rejects the essential importance of any of the Husbands - beyond = the neccessity of there being a husband. =20
I've been refering to this cult as Esrola Magna Mater, however, its =
tenets (beyond superficialities such as the mystery of the Sacrificial =
King, the Six Daughters of Earth and the Four Earth Dieties (Esrola, Ty =
Kora Tek, Ketha, Entru) and its removal from the cultural context of the =
parameters of Heort's Laws and Argan Argar), etc. are as yet largely =
undetermined by me. However Nick Brooke suggests that:
=09
"The four most important Esrolite deities in my system would be:
Esrola ('Asrelia' to foreigners) as Mother Earth;
Ketha ('the Grain Goddess') as her Daughter;
Ty Kora Tek as the Earth Witch or Ghost Goddess;
Entru ('Genert') as the First Father.
I then run a Persephone/Inanna myth, where Esrola descends to Ty Kora =
Tek's
underworld to retrieve dead/departed Ketha, but is asked for the life of =
Entru
in fair exchange. This is the Esrolite Great Compromise."
I believe this is also the "Esrolite Lightbringer's Quest" - which is = rather a misnomer.
The obvious advantage of this "mystery cult" is that it allows us to = embrace the apparant contradictions of written Esrolian material by = reconciling its Orlanthi status, its trollish customs (although I'd = still love to see some examples of what these might be) with the = published material referring to an Esrolian Earth cult. My answer: they = all exist within the same culture.
4) After the Pharoah became the Undying Harvest King of the Esrolians = (playing directly into the myths of the Esrolian mystery cult and being = of great impact because the cult initiates are the elite of Esrolian = society), the cult actually gained in influence as the mystery cult = spread to "earth cult" centers in Kethaela and later in Dragon Pass. I = hypothesize the Esrolian Magna Mater cult's diffusion being similar to = Dionysius worship in the Aegean, or Cybele/ Adonis worship throughout = the eastern Mediterranean, or Isis/ Osiris worship throughout the = Hellenistic/ Roman world. The Esrolite Magna Mater cult offered "inner = truths" to cults that it interpreted as being shadows of itself (like = Ernalda amongst the Heortlings - although I suspect that only a minority = of major Ernalda cult centers sustain the "Esrolian rites", Maran Gor = amonst the Kerofini and the great success of the Esrolian cult - the = Feathered Horse Queen).
I view Esrolia as something akin to Egypt for the Mediterranean world - = a source of ancient "truths" about the world and as such, its rites are = viewed as being of "superior pedigree" to the surrounding less = sophisticated, less wealthy clans and tribes (including most of the = Esrolians). Perhaps it would be best to view the "Esrolian earth cult" = as a self sustaining sub-cult that interprets itself as belonging to any = Earth Goddess archetype. I recognize that the phrasology is rather = clumsy but hopefully the concept makes sense. IOW, a priestess of = Esrola, Ernalda, Peloria, Lu-ungariant, Maran Gor, whatever, could = becoming initiated into this sub-cult which claims that all of these = goddesses are but aspects of the Earth Goddess. This does not mean that = there is a universal earth cult, but simply that the "Esrolian earth = cult" claims to be one and is willing to accept qualified initiates from = any cult that it interprets as being an "earth cult".
I don't believe that Esrolia and Pelandra represent survivals of a = "universal, ancient Earth religion" even though the Esrolian claim that = is exactly what they are. Take the modern speculation on the "Mother = Goddess Cults". Were the cult of Cybele Magna Mater, the Paleolithic = Goddess figures, Innana-Ishtar, and the Madonna all survivals of a = "universal, ancient Earth religion", or do they each represent differnt = cultural symbols for a universal human experience, that of = Woman/Fertillity? I strongly suspect the latter.
This is what I find so interesting about the "Esrola Magna Mater" claim = of a universal, ancient Earth religion - that somehow the Esrolians = claim to have privileged knowledge about that universal human experience = and that the mythic symbols by which other cultures represent that = universal experience are just shadows or garbled memories of the = Esrolian Truth. In their intellectual arrogance, the Esrolians rival = the God Learners, the Lunars, or the British.:>
5) So what does this have to do with the Feathered Horse Queen? Well in = KoS p 227, the founding myth of the FHQ works well with my hypothesis:
"La-ungariant had always been a pliant goddess, and though subordinate = to her husband nonetheless had considerable power within her family. = But one day she found her husband beating her children mercilessly, and = she begged him to stop. [note: this is a thinly viewed allegory to the = tension between the Vendref and the Grazers] When Esnandrol would not, = she was terrified and turned away, and fled to the shadowy realms to = hide. [note: the Shadow Plateau or Esrolia?] There she met her sisters, = who had been missing for many years. [note: a reference to the Esrolian = MC claim that the earth goddesses are the daughters of the Esrolian = Earth Goddess?] They shared secret, both bitter and sweet, and then they = conferred her own regal powers upon the queen. [note: initiation into = the Esrolian mysteries?] When she returned, she was called the Feathered = Horse Queen, because she wore the ancient signs of regal office which = had been stripped from her goddess in the gods age. [note: another = reference to the Esrolian mysteries?]
This was a great time for the Earth Tribe. [note: again does this mean = that the Esrolian mysteries were wide-spread and pervasive amongst local = "earth cults"?] In Tarsh the goddess [note: the Esrolian cult?] = controlled the sacrificial Illaro dynasty, and in Sartar the Orendanae = [note: I posited this as the name of the Ernaldan priestesses of = Clearwine] sat upon the tribal rings of the three main tribes [note: the = Colymar and who else?]. In Esrolia they were strongest of course [note: = obviously as the center of the cult], which was the reign of High Queen = Bravula."
Anyways, that is my incoherent spew of ideas on Esrolia.=20
>>Give us something meatier, Joerg.
>Working on it...
Does this qualify as something meatier
Yours truly,
Jeff Richard
End of Glorantha Digest V2 #394
WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html
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